Described examples include a receiver having a beam splitter arranged to receive reflected light from a scene illuminated by a transmitted light signal, the beam splitter structured to provide at least two copies of the reflected light including at least two regions having sub-regions, wherein the sub-regions are not adjacent to each other. The receiver also includes a first sensor array arranged to receive one region of the reflected light and provide an output representative of that region of the reflected light. The receiver also includes a second sensor array arranged to receive the other region of the reflected light and provide a second output representative of the second region of the reflected light. The receiver also includes a combiner arranged to receive the outputs of the sensor arrays to provide a combined representation of the reflected light.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
5. The receiver of claim 4, wherein the third region is between the first and second regions, and the second region is between the third and fourth regions.
6. The receiver of claim 1, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth photodiodes are avalanche photodiodes.
7. The receiver of claim 1, wherein the beam splitter includes a cube beam splitter having a half-mirror layer.
10. The receiver of claim 9, wherein the first sensor integrated circuit includes photodiodes configured as first surplus pixels, and the second sensor integrated circuit includes photodiode configured as second surplus pixels.
11. The receiver of claim 10, wherein the processing circuit is configured to perform a misalignment correction operation between the first photodiodes and the second photodiodes based on sixth signals generated by the first surplus pixels and seventh signals generated by the second surplus pixels.
15. The receiver of claim 8, wherein the first through eighth photodiodes are avalanche photodiodes.
16. The receiver of claim 8, wherein the beam splitter includes a cube beam splitter having a half-mirror layer.
17. The receiver of claim 8, wherein the beam splitter includes three cube beam splitters each having a half-mirror layer.
18. The receiver of claim 8, wherein the fifth region is adjacent the first region, and the sixth region is adjacent the second region.
21. The method of claim 19, wherein the light is split by a beam splitter.
23. The method of claim 22, further comprising: determining an alignment correction factor between the first and second photodiodes based on sixth signals from the first surplus pixels and seventh signals from the second surplus pixels.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
November 28, 2018
February 7, 2023
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